Gout and Sleep Apnea

I was overweight at the time and was getting tired during the day all
the time.

After a severe
Gout
attack I went to my local Doctor and mentioned about my breathing
problem, and that's when he mentioned I might have sleep apnea and this
was related to Gout and heart disease and many other medical
complications.
Great I thought I have Gout and Sleep Apnea, what else can go wrong?

My doctor had just come from a seminar that included Gout and Sleep
Apnea as a
discussion topic and the studied new methods of detection and results.

A month or two later I was diagnosed with severe apnea, I
then lost weight and it was downgraded to mild sleep apnea that
required no breathing device at night luckily.

What I also did not know was during REM or Deep sleep if a sufferer has
an apnea attack then the body sends out adrenalin to make the
sufferer go into a lighter sleeping pattern which also kicks starts the
breathing again.
So imagine if you have a heart condition or disease, if massive
adrenalin doses pour through your system you could have a heart attack.

The Doctor had strongly suggested that being overweight or Obese as I
was was making the air pipe smaller, hence less oxygen was getting into
the bloodstream which can affect organs and the brain, as an oxygen
starved brain certainly isn't a nice thing to get.

An oxygen starved bloodstream causes the breakdown of cells
which forms Uric acid, the enemy of Gout.
Coupled in this low oxygen environment is carbon dioxide which causes
the blood to increase in its acidity and also increases monosodium
urate.

Monosodium Urate is a group of calcium phosphates that can build up in
connective tissues such as the ears and elbows and create Tophi...and
inflammation or just attack the synovial sacks and kick off a Gout
attack.

Another common trait with Gout is the circumference of the neck.

I have a large neck, which in a car accident is good as it is harder to
break my neck or good in certain areas of sport, but for
Gout
and sleep apnea it is a bad thing to have.

A thick neck generally equals a smaller air passage, the more
overweight you are the smaller the circumference is of the airway.
Every extra pound or kilo of weight could be an extra
millimeter less of air passage = less oxygen = more gout = more chance
of other organ sickness etc.

Also having a thick tongue, or a receding chin, thick tonsils, nasal
congestion, Hypothyroidism, post-polio syndrome, and Down syndrome can
affect you, as well as being a smoker, drinking before bedtime and the
taking of sedatives can also bring it on.

Some schools of thought seem to think that Gout is an early warning
sign of Sleep Apnea, this may well be true.

• Lose weight
immediately ( but be careful as the faster you lose weight the easier
you can get a Gout attack )

• Sleep with
the aid
of a breathing apparatus designed for Apnea sufferers. It is basically
a small mask that fits over the nose and a small machine by
the bed, when an apnea attack occurs the machine registers no breathing
and gently pumps air down the airways, my friends who have this device
say that they have never had a better sleep ) This is
generally for severe Sleep apnea sufferers.

• Another
device is a
jaw disc or a jaw plate. It fits in like a set of plate for false teeth
in the top of the mouth and pushes the jaw forward, so that during
sleep the air passage is open more. This is for lighter cases of apnea.

• There are
talks of
laser surgery in Japan on the back of the air pipe, but this is best to
stay away from as it is experimental at the moment and nothing is
proven with this method.

• Sleep on your
side
and not on your back. Try using a back support pillow wedged behind
your spine so when you try and roll over it stops you. There are people
out there touting the use of a squash ball supported on your back so
that you feel it when you roll over. It is a good suggestion and I
guess what ever works for you is a great thing indeed. So
experimentation is what is required especially to help Gout and Sleep
apnea.

• There are
newer
Surgery methods being developed so it is best to seek medical advice
first.

Types of Sleep
Apnea

• OSA - Obstructive
Sleep Apnea ( this is the most common form )
• CSA - Central
Sleep Apnea ( Brain signals delay instruction to the body to breathe-
this is also a central nervous disorder)
• Mixed
Sleep Apnea
( mixture of the above two )

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